The recently released film, Paan Singh Tomar resurrects a forgotten sports hero - Paan Singh Tomar. An army man who turned to sports, Tomar
eventually became a seven-time national champion, and set new records in the arduous athletic event of steeplechase. However, his fame grew only after
he turned to the Chambal valley, became a baaghi - a rebel, as he saw himself, but a common dacoit in the eyes of the law.

PST is a compelling two-and-a-half hour bio pic; it charts Tomar's journey right from his record-creating sprees in the 1950s, to his premature
retirement from the army to settle land squabbles in his extended family, leading to his final resort to arms, and culminating in his death in a
police encounter in 1981. Combining the genres of the sports film and the dacoit drama, the film arguably also chases larger questions - of neglect of
athletes, social inequality, justice and the subversion of law.

A minor sub-plot in the film focuses on Tomar's personal life. He is shown enjoying moments of domesticity in the company of his wife and children.
Tomar, the script convinces us, was a loving husband and father. He is portrayed as fiercely protective of his eldest son, Hanumanta, seeking vengeance
when the latter is attacked by his uncle; later, as the film cruises along, we see him yearning for his adult son. He eventually finds solace, after
reassuring himself that his son has a secure career in the army and has settled into matrimony.

These moments of intensity between father and son captured on screen are remarkable, given that in Indian cinematic tradition, fathers typically aren't
nearly as anxious about their sons as the mothers are. We obsess about the mother-son bond both on screen and off it. Simultaneously, many classic
cinematic images map troubled father-son relationships; - Awaara, Deewar, Shakti and Taare Zameen Par all come to mind,
while films like Pa remain exceptions.

Of the only two freely circulating photographs of the athlete, one is family photograph which has - besides Tomar's wife and
mother - two girls and a boy.

However, one is tempted to ask, whatever happened to Tomar's daughter - the little girl who after being born just silently fades away from the script
as well as our memory? We see fleeting glimpses of the adolescent girl, but we don't see her studying. As far as one can tell from the film itself, she
neither grows up, nor is educated, nor marries, unlike her brother Hanumanta. She just disappears! In fact, she remains unnamed throughout the film.
When Tomar is home after another stint abroad, Tomar's wife (Mahie Gill), wanting to be alone with her husband, instructs their son Hanumanta to leave
the house for a while, simultaneously reminding him to take his sister along, "behen ko saath le jao", and that is the last we hear of the
girl.

I am tempted to read these silences in conjunction with the low premium placed on the lives of little girls in most parts of north India. When the
script writers are commended for admirably capturing the local flavour, one is chillingly reminded of the fact that Morena (the district that Tomar
hailed from) has one of the worst Child Sex Ratios in the country. Further, this district is notorious for a history of female infanticide, and also
has male-female ratios which are increasingly skewed for the upper caste Tomars.

The problem in India, controversially, is that of 'missing girls' more than 'missing females' - millions of girls not do not survive to adulthood.
Differential access to health and nutrition lead to attrition of girl children. Little girls are grossly undervalued and the system generates strong
disincentives to the raising of daughters. Further, societal norms privilege hypergamy and upholding caste pride, hence a daughter's father is
convinced that his ultimate 'duty' towards his daughter rests in arranging a suitable (read 'correct' caste-class) match for his daughter. Burdened
by the consumerist avatar of dowry , most parents dread the humiliation that they have to undergo not only during a daughter's lavish wedding but the
slew of gifts that they'd have to line up following all life cycle rituals in the married daughter's household, an endless cycle of continued
obligations without any economic return.

Even an increase in average age of marriage has not helped; it has instead meant that apprehensions around the daughter's sexuality are stretched over
a longer period than earlier. Daughters are therefore naturally associated with a double loss. First, daughters leave the natal family following
marriage and so the benefits from investments made in their upbringing accrue to the 'new' family. This is compounded by the burden of expenses of
their wedding.

The sense that daughters are a drain is suggested in a very telling moment in the film. Tomar remits a large portion of his income home, keeping
little to himself. When questioned, he simply announces, "Hamari wife ko beti hui hai" (my wife has given birth to a daughter) indicating
clearly the cut on the father's rations on one hand, and the need to start saving on the other, upon the arrival of his daughter.

The female child is perceived as unwelcome addition to the family, deliberately neglected and callously treated. Unsurprisingly, daughter - aversion,
as an emotion and practice has become the common sense with a life of its own. While parental choice to rear sons rather than daughters is easily
explained, scholars now insist that a preference for sons logicallycoexists with discrimination against daughters.

Between reel and real, I felt the urgency to learn more about Tomar's unnamed daughter. Rummaging on the world wide web, I discovered that of the only
two freely circulating photographs of the athlete, one is family photograph which has - besides Tomar's wife and mother - two girls and a boy. I delved
into the maze of various accounts about the real Paan Singh Tomar, all stimulated courtesy the buzz around the film, and searched for Tomar's
daughters.

In piecing together Tomar's story, I discovered that some journalists have privileged the narratives of the sarpanch of Bhidosa and Tomar's nephew,
Birendar Singh Tomar, whose father was among other kin murdered by Paan Singh Tomar. Some others have focused on Tomar's surviving son, Souram Singh,
or on other men in his life - friends as well as foes. 'Hanumant' is mostly missing, so I assumed that the film script had casually altered the name of
Tomar's first born, just as it had transmuted the family composition.

Yet, my pursuit yielded many a surprize. In a lone report filed by a benign (female) journalist, it surfaced that Paan Singh Tomar had in fact
fathered six children - two boys and four girls. Hanumanta died four years after his father's death in an accident, whereas '(A)ll his daughters are
married and stay with their in-laws'.

While film makers do fictionalise biographies, I remain curious as to why the brilliant director Tigmanshu Dhulia, who also wrote the script, chose to
drastically tweak the sibling configuration of Tomar's family, privileging the first born and invisibilising the daughters. It is, perhaps more a
testimony of these times than those gone by.

As a final point, most reviewers are waxing eloquent about the realistic portrayals, fine performances, gripping visuals and the near flawless script
of PST. I wonder whether the 'technologies of neglect' engulfing girl children have blinded reviewers to the sudden ejection of a little girl
from a film script. The oversight goes 'unnoticed', just as millions of girls go - 'unmourned' in this country!

Namrata R Ganneri07 May 2012

Namrata R Ganneri is Assistant Professor in the Department of History in SNDT College of Arts & SCB College of Comm & Sc for Women, Mumbai.

Rahul Shingrani
Well done professor. If using the medium of cinema and the role of cinema critic is the best way to get eyeballs turned to this issue, so be it.

May 09 2012, 8:05 AM ·
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Feminist
To Author of the Article: The film portrayed the exact features of then society, in which the virtual non-recognition of the girl child on par with the male child is a reality. That is why it prompted you to write about the genuine equal rights of a female on par with male counterpart. Had it shown in the way you would be pleased, then it means the film has shown some fantasy story and not the reality. Then you would have thought that then society is more egalitarian than today's. Your article is thought provoking but asking the director to include your version of Paan Singh Tomar is totally unjustified, cause that would not be a real Paan Singh Tomar's Story. It is like making a Gandhi film not shot dead by Godsay.

May 09 2012, 3:36 PM ·
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SHOMA A. CHATTERJI
This is one of the most insightful and incisive articles I have read in a long time about the deliberate erasure of daughters from the scripts of their parents'lives on screen and in real life. Brilliant research, wonderful style and scathing comment. Congratulations!

May 14 2012, 3:46 AM ·
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shailendra rai
Fantastic article.
Its a real shame that even after 60 years of our independence,girls (especially those in rural areas) are forced to lead a differential life compared to their male counterparts. All the talks and walks of women empowerment is limited to cities only. One daily gets to read about continued violence against women in rural households in local newspapers, and its a testament to our (read educated masses) hypocrisy that we just read it as another piece of news and forget it the very next moment.

May 21 2012, 11:21 AM ·
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Mrinal Devburman
Dear Namrata R Ganneri, After a long time I read a nice piece. Very well analysed. Kudos to you.

January 10 2013, 11:01 AM ·
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Rina Mukherji
Thanks for a brilliantly researched piece. But then, it is not just in the rural areas that girl children go uncounted for as part of the family. Girls -to this day- are overlooked as bearers of the family name and a part of the family in most parts of India. It is as if they do not exist. As for the film, I am sure the film-maker could not cope with the little available data on this athlete who had once done the nation proud! Perhaps he would have done better to have engaged a good researcher for the script.

January 28 2013, 5:06 PM ·
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